Richard Osgood MBE Operation Nightingale

 We were incredibly fortunate to have Richard Osgood as our speaker in October via Zoom. He gave us many examples of the therapeutic role played by archaeology in the lives of ex service personnel. There's a good synopsis of Richard's career here. 

I took some photos of Richard's slides during the talks and there's an unedited recording of his talk which you can see if you click on that link. I'll write down a few of my notes for the record. 

Richard joined the MOD in 2004, and has been their senior archaeologist for over 10 years; he and his team look after 770 scheduled monuments including 10 world heritage sites. With veterans of conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2011, Richard realised that PTSD as a result of conflict was not considered when his father served in WW2, but the wounds are real despite being hidden. Operation Nightingale is the name given to the exercise.

Richard started by telling us about the archaeology of a Burrow Island in Portsmouth Harbour, also called Rat Island.

It looks very scenic from a distance

above you can just see the holes where the bodies were slotted into the ground

above and below some of the skeletons they found

There's a sign warning people that it's MOD land  below

The island is reached by a small causeway twice a day at low tide, and between 2-5 May 2017 the holes in eroded cliffs were examined in an operation known as Exercise Magwitch. The holes in the cliffs are burial sites where the bodies were stacked on each other, It is thought the skeletons are those of the up to 7000 prisoners held in ship hulks in Portsmouth Harbour between 1796- 1814. They could have been French identified by their naval buttons and French graffiti and were maybe prisoners of war, mostly they were male. It's fascinating to see how a face can be built from the skeleton as suggested below:

In May this year, I first caught up with Richard Osgood who was leading an excavation at a football field in Aldbourne which is where the Band of Brothers were stationed during WW2. Richard was involved in the first one of these in 2019 at documented by Wiltshire Museum. Crisp packets and silk stockings are among artefacts found at the site, there are also memorable dog tags from two members of Easy Company, Richard A Blake and Carl Fenstermaker. There is a youtube video about this which you can access by clicking on the links on this X post, I hope.

Below is an example of artefacts found in Aldbourne:

On Salisbury Plain in 2012-14 Operation Nightingale excavated 100 burials of men and women many of which are at Devizes Museum now. DNA has been examined to find out if they are related. 7th Century decorative grave goods have been discovered and a Bronze age pin 2700 years old, seen in an archaeologists hand below

Below is a reconstruction of a bronze Age hut

and here's a 6th Century bucket made of yew, currently in Devizes Museum

Getting together outside doing archaeology is a great way of making friends

I'll finish with a plug for Richard Osgood' book: 'Broken Pots Mending Lives: the Archaeology of Operation Nightingale.

At least I thought that was the end of the post, but after writing it, I went to watch Digging for Britain with Alice Roberts who was looking at WW11 artefacts, and towards the end of the programme, there's Richard Osgood talking about the Aldbourne site and the importance of it at the end of the war when Easy Company were stationed there for 6 months leaving behind a wealth of interesting artefacts, Here's the link to the programme, and here are some photos taken from the tv:

The final one is with Richard Osgood and Alice Roberts.

Friends' Visit to Kelmscott Manor

 A group of the Friends visited Kelmscott Manor last week; our visit included a drink and biscuit on arrival, a guided tour followed by lunch. It has fairly recently been upgraded and restored and the house appears in good condition with in places wallpaper recreated using traditional William Morris techniques. The furniture and decorative items have been placed where they would have been when Morris lived there, it does feel quite authentic, although because no one knew what would have been in the kitchen, it's empty!! The interiors are beautiful and so is the garden. Our guide went into great detail about each of the rooms and was able to answer questions, because of his thoroughness, there was a slight feel of being a bit rushed, but it kept us on our toes and made me want to go back and look more carefully at things.

I took photos and will start with the outside where it's so beautiful and it's easy to see why Morris loved it so much and kept going back there, although even now, it feels quite remote.

The front door and path going up to it are so delightful, it's hard not to photograph them

and in a corner of the garden opposite the front door is a covered small summerhouse where I imagine people would meet, although it is not very private

I have taken some of the views inside the house where often the lighting was quite subdued, and looking at photos in the guidebook helped me see the true colours

Here's another view of a brighter room

This corner cabinet holds lots of Iznik plates and tiles which apparently were an inspiration for Morris

and below the fabulous painting 'The Blue Silk Dress' by Rosetti; a portrait of Jane Morris. According to the wonderful Kelmscott guidebook, Rosetti composed a Latin verse which connects the idealisation of love with the making of art.

Finally it's well worth having a look at the river which runs along the edge of the garden very close to the house

You will notice there are many stone slabs used as fencing around Kelmscott village, and here they were used to make a herb filled planter.

Thank you to the guides and all those people who made our trip on 18 October such a wonderful day out. We had a lovely time and would recommend the guided tour.

Parallel Lives: Eight Women Artists

 Dr Gill Clarke talked about the eight women artists who feature in this fascinating exhibition she co curated with Steve Marshal at St.Barbe's in Lymington. What is so interesting is that all eight women artists were born within 20 years of each other, and their lives span the twentieth century. A Barnes coach is taking a group of us to Lymington on 28 October, if you click on the Barnes' link you could book to come for £25. There are 70 works in the exhibition celebrating the lives of 8 artists.

Let's start with Enid Marx, a wood engraver who went to Eric Ravilious after hours in college because it was thought she couldn't draw. Paul Nash also tutored her. Enid held teaching posts, was a royal designer for industry and the first female wood engraver to receive a title. She is probably best known for her linocut with pastel colouring titled 'Wally Dogs'

Enid Marx designed fabrics for London Underground as seen below:

She also produced posters for the underground and stamps in the 1960s

Gertrude Hermes was engaged in sculpting and wood engraving, 'Thorn Apple' is a wood engraving of hers:

Evelyn Dunbar was the only salaried female war artist; 40 of her paintings are in existence. I am including the painting of her family garden painted between 1929-37.The tower you can just about see on top of the house in the distance is where her studio was situated. The house is now a B&B and the garden has been built on.

In the exhibition there are also paintings like the Canning Demonstration from 1940 illustrating what happened when you had a glut of fruit. The war paintings also show women's land army dairy training.

Ithell Colquhoun's work was shaped by surrealism and the occult. She also admired the work of Salvador Dali whose exhibition she saw in 1936. Nasturtiums seen below is produced using sepia ink and watercolour.

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham 1912-2004 was brought up in  St.Andrews in Scotland, and was fascinated by the natural world. This striking work from 1981 depicts St.Andrews' Bay:

She studied at Edinburgh College of Art and gained a post graduate scholarship where it was suggested she go to St.Ives 

 'Island Sheds' produced in St.Ives appears to have been influenced by Alfred Wallis (1855-1942)

Wilhelmina produced abstract work in her final decade and was given an OBE in 2001.

Her great friend Margaret Mellis also lived in St.Ives and attracted lots of other artists to settle down there. This is a great photo of Wilhelmina in her studio:

Prunella Clough although she lived in London all her life, often depicted fishing and fishermen because she often stayed in Southwold where her parents often went on holiday and then her Mother bought a holiday home there.

Barbara Jones was interested in follies and grottos. She produced The Fairground for the Recording Britain school series.

Our eighth artist featured in the St.Barbe exhibition is Monica Poole a wood engraver interested in plant forms, she later made linocuts and taught both disciplines.

There is so much more to these 8 artists than I have covered here, and I'm not sure I've read my notes correctly. To watch the recording of Dr Gill Clarke's talk please check out the website.

I'm very much looking forward to visiting the exhibition on Saturday when a group of us are going on a Barnes' coach trip to Lymington.

Anne Desmet talks about her Influences and Working Methods

On the 18 December last year, I visited the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester and loved Anne S-Desmet's exhibition, Kaleidoscope in the Print Room. I was fascinated by her work and wanted to know more about her detailed drawings and collages. Anne agreed to give us a talk in August ; we have a recording on the website and I took photos and made notes during the talk.

Anne spent the years between 1982-5 having many operations, so although not in school, there was plenty of opportunity for drawing in pencil and biro. Anne attended Ruskin School of Art in Oxford where she was studying woodcut and wood engraving. Her tutor Jean Lodge suggested she could lavish time on fine detail in printmaking. She was a fan of Escher, liking the escapist element of Ovid fascinated by transformations and metamorphosing images.

In addition to the Pallant House gallery exhibition, Anne also had one in the Ashmolean in 2020 celebrating a centenary of wood engraving; engraving with tools that come to fine points to get the detail required. It's important to use wood with a constant rate of growth for this; box wood is very good for wood engraving. I photographed some of the slides Anne showed which appear below:

Above: 7 small wood engravings & collages of Liverpool landmarks 2014-6

12 drawings on A4 and A5 paper 1982-5 these drawings above give an idea of Anne's work pre art school

M.C.Escher 'Fish and Scales'

In 1989 Anne won a scholarship to the British School of Rome and spent a year doing masses of drawings

Above left Panteon (Tondo) linocut prints collaged on paper 2003 and on the right Pantheon linocut print on paper 2000

The culmination of Anne's year at the British School in Rome was a book containing a year of scholarship drawings which were lost in a bag snatch; Anne returned to Italy many times  experimenting with images and how to present them. She loves the theatricality of Piranesi, Piero del Francesca, particularly his amazing compositions.

Above Anne collaged wood engravings, linocuts and lithographs onto 40 razor shells in 2022

Above 'British Museum-Blue Sky' wood engraving, linocut and stencils 2023

Above 5 views of St.Paul's mostly wood engravings on blocks of 20 year old holly which had been maturing in the wardrobe for years, although the one on the right is a digital print which raised some eyebrows

Above left, St.Paul's at Dawn and on the right, Claude Monet some of his paintings of Rouen Cathedral

Above Wood engravings and linocut prints on paper stuck onto 18 razor shells.

Anne went to college in Manhattan in 2014 where there was a windchill of -15 degrees

and completed quite a few linocuts of Brooklyn Bridge, influenced by Nevinson and Wadsworth whose works 'Looking through Brooklyn Bridge' and 'Dazzle Ship in Drydock' appear on the right.

More Brooklyn Bridge in the afternoon and in snow

Above in 'Manhattan \storm' a wood engraving and linocut, you can see the influence of Utagawa Hiroshige

Above The Tower of Babel by Pieter Brueghel was the inspiration for 'Homage to Brueghel' in 2023, it's a tower in Bologna

Above 'Build your own Babel Tower' linocuts and wood engraving collaged onto museum board, Eric Ravilious also cited as an influence

Above 'Early Flight' on the left and more Italian visits for the three on the right

I'll finish with three beautiful wood engravings, the top 'Oxford Light' and the other two of Bath Circus which work so well. The talk was fantastic as you can imagine from these images and can be seen on our website